nothing to do at work so...going back a few weeks.

With the grand openning of the new library at school, and only 16 hrs of class this week. I have absolutely nothing to do while I'm here. I did volunteer to help out one of my teachers during her class and play an activity with the kids. Anyways I figured I'd blog about things that have happened to me since my arrival here in Korea.
We arrived on the night of Sat Sept 2nd. Anne had gotten sick on the flight. I felt really bad for her. I've felt sick on rides but have never felt bad enough to throw up. Also I feel that had it happened to me and I almost wished it did because I feel that I could've taken it better. Enough about upchuck, the thing that amazed me about the flight was the time change. It was so fascinating for me that even tho we had boarded the plane at 3 and it was only 4 hrs into the flight it was getting still bright outside and then when it was 8pm in toronto the pilot and stewardess told us to close the blinds bc ppl were starting to sleep. I couldn't sleep for the most part because it was still light outside. I could see the light seeping in thru the cracks. In any case, after we landed we were taken to Paradise Hotel and Anne missed out on this delicious meal bc she was still feeling sick.

I felt that the orientation was boring for the most part. Simply cuz we had to sit thru lectures from various organizations including the city council members about the constuction of the new Incheon and honestly a lot of it was useless though sometimes funny and the other parts were all in the book they gave us. That being said I'm glad we went to it because that's when we befriended Lindsay and Natasha.


Last day of orientation: This was the day we met up with our coteachers. It turned out my coteacher and the head teacher came to meet me and the first thing we did was rush to the immigration office to get my alien registration card. i thought that experience was hilarious. it felt like we were in the amazing race bc the three of us were rushing so we split up the jobs line up for this stamp, mimi go and get ur photo taken, haekyong go get us a number, mr. kwan find out what sheet we need. AND... BREAK!!! it was hilarious but we managed to do it in record time. and then headed back the school. When we got there I had to do an impromptu speech to the kids who were practicing for Oon Dong-hey (sports day or something like track and field day but with traditional dances). I made it as short as possible and then realized that no one understood... that is until HaeKyong translated it for me. hehe... then i received the applause i was waiting for. boy it was then that i knew, i had my work cut out for me. jk. I had only time to meet my principal give him his present, my vp his present, my head teacher his present and my co teacher her present and boy were they a big hit. I basically bought hart house maple syrup for them and then got my principal a UofT t-shirt and my vp tim hortons coffee.

We then headed off to Carrefour where we bought everything in sight, at least it seemed to me that they kept saying u're going to need this, pick which one u like, u're going to need this and on and on. It still felt like we were in the amazing race. After about 2 hrs later my headteacher tells me that we're going to have to come back because his car is small and may not be able to take all this. so we lug this home to the 4th floor and then they told me the bed won't arrive until the next day and that I get to choose which bed i wanted. finally in my empty apt i sat down on my chair and started to clean. it was mostly clean, which is apparently unusual bc the way it works in korea is that when tenants move out, they don't clean and then new tenants have to clean it when they move into the apt. but my teacher, and landlord had came earlier that day and cleaned the entire place for me. that was incredibly sweet but of course theres always some things they overlook. So i ran downstairs to my grocer bought some cleaning products brought it upstairs and cleaned as much as i could. after that i started to unload what we had bought that day.

By the end of that week, My room was starting to look very cozy. after about 4 more trips to carrefour my room is now very very cozy and homey.
Let me just say that in the process of me decorating and filling my home, I've learned how to change the toilet seat, and build a lot of furniture without instructions (since i didnt understand them) and a number of other things.


So other things since my arrive include:
- hiking in Incheon grand park.
- Winning a race during On-dong hey that made me a superstar to my kids, the neighborhood and my school. I have a vid but i'm not sure how to put it up... so... let's just take a moment and imagine it. hahaha (i may have a separate blog about this event


- attending a korean wedding (will post about this event later next free time)
- hiking up kyesan which was tiring.

That's all I can write for today. I gotta go see the new library.